Definition of Public Relationship

Public relations is a building good relations with the company’s various publics by
obtaining favorable publicity, building up a good cooperate image, and handling or heading off
unfavorable rumors, stories and events.

Other than that, public relation is the practice of managing communication between an
organization and its publics. Public relations gains an organization or individual exposure to
their audiences using topics of public interest and news items that provide a third-party
endorsement and do not direct payment. Common activities include speaking at conferences,
working with the media, crisis communications, social media engagement and employee
communication. It is something that is not tangible; this is what sets it apart from advertising.

Public relations includes ongoing activities to ensure the organization has a strong public
image. Public relations activities include helping the public to understand the organization and its
products. Similar to effective advertising and promotions, effective public relations often
depends on designing and implementing a well-designed public relations plan. The plan often
includes description of what you want to convey to whom, how you plan to convey it, who is
responsible for various activities and by when, and how much money is budgeted to fund these
activities. Similar to advertising and promotions, a media plan and calendar can be very useful,
which specifies what media methods that are used and when.

Often, public relations are conducted through the media, that is, newspapers, television,
magazines, etc. Publicity is mention in the media. Organizations usually have little control over
the message in the media, at least, not as much as they do in advertising. Regarding publicity,
reporters and writers decide what will be said.

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Function of Public Relations

PR can be used to build rapport with employees, customers, investors, voters or the
general public. Almost any organization that has a stake in how it is portrayed in the public arena
employs some level of public relations. There are a number of related disciplines falling under
the banner of Corporate Communications such as Analyst Relations, Media Relations, Investor
Relations, Internal Communications and Labor Relations. PR professionals focus on building
relationships that help to establish rapport with publics. Public Relations professionals must
know how to write clearly, speak clearly, and think analytically. These skills are necessary
because in the field of PR there is constant communication between professionals and their
publics. PR professionals also have to think critically so that they can come up with resolutions
to problems their clients may face. Other than that, public relation is used to promote products,
people, places, ideas, activities, organizations and nations. Trade associations have used public
relations to rebuild interest in declining commodities.

Public relations departments may perform any or all of the following functions :

• Press relations or press agency : Creating and placing newsworthy

information in the news media to attract attention to a person, product or service.

• Public affairs : building and maintaining national or local community relations.

• Lobbying : building and maintaining relations with legislators and

government officials to influence legislation and regulation.

• Investor relations : maintaining relationship with shareholders and others in

the financial community.

• Development : public relations with donors or members of nonprofit

organizations to gain financial or volunteer support.

The Role and Impact of Public Relation

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 Public relations can have a strong impact on public awareness at a much lower cost than
advertising can. The company does not pay for a staff to develop and circulate information and
to manage events. If the company develops an interesting story, it could be picked up by several
different media, having the same effect as advertising that would cost millions of dollars and it
would have credibility than advertising.

The Industry Today

The need for public relations personnel is growing at a fast pace. The types of clients that
Public Relation people work for include the government, educational institutions, nonprofit
organizations, specific industries, corporations, athletic teams, entertainment companies, and
even countries.

The practice of public relations is spreading widely. On the professional level, there is an
organization called Public Relations Society of America (PRSA). This organization is the world's
largest public relations organization. PRSA is a community of more than 21,000 professionals
that work to advance the skill set of public relations. PRSA also fosters a national student
organization called Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA). "The declared
purpose of PRSSA is to cultivate a favorable and mutually advantageous relationship between
students and professional public relations practitioners". These organizations should be strongly
considered by anyone looking to have a career in public relations.

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Publics Targeting

A fundamental technique used in public relations is to identify the target audience, and to tailor
every message to appeal to that audience. It can be a general, nationwide or worldwide audience,
but it is more often a segment of a population. Marketers often refer to economy-driven
"demographics” but in public relations an audience is more fluid, being whoever someone wants
to reach. For example, recent political audiences include "soccer moms” and “NASCAR dads”
There is also a psychographic grouping based on fitness level, eating preferences and others

In addition to audiences, there are usually stakeholders, people who have a stake in a given issue.
All audiences are stakeholders (or presumptive stakeholders), but not all stakeholders are
audiences. For example, if a charity commissions a PR agency to create an advertising campaign
to raise money to find a cure for a disease, the charity and the people with the disease are
stakeholders, but the audience is anyone who is likely to donate money.

Sometimes the interests of differing audiences and stakeholders common to a PR effort

necessitate the creation of several distinct but complementary messages. This is not always easy
to do, and sometimes – especially in politics – a spokesperson or client says something to one
audience that angers another audience or group of stakeholders.

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Spin

In PR, "spin" is sometimes a pejorative term signifying a heavily biased portrayal in one's own
favor of an event or situation. While traditional public relations may also rely on creative
presentation of the facts, "spin" often, though not always, implies disingenuous, deceptive and/or
highly manipulative tactics. Politicians are often accused of spin by commentators and political
opponents when they produce a counterargument or position.

The techniques of spin include selectively presenting facts and quotes that support one's position
(cherry picking), the so-called "non-denial," phrasing in a way that assumes unproven truths,
euphemisms for drawing attention away from items considered distasteful, in public statements.
Another spin technique involves careful choice of timing in the release of certain news so it can
take advantage of prominent events in the news.

Meet and Greet

Many businesses and organizations will use a Meet and Greet as a method of introducing two or
more parties to each other in a comfortable setting. These will generally involve some sort of
incentive, usually food catered from restaurants, to encourage employees or members to
participate.

There are opposing schools of thought as to how the specific mechanics of a Meet and Greet
operate. The Gardiner school of thought states that unless specified as an informal event, all
parties should arrive promptly at the time at which the event is scheduled to start. The
Kolanowski school of thought, however, states that parties may arrive at any time after the event
begins, in order to provide a more relaxed interaction environment.

Interactive public relations

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Interactive public relation is the use of internet tools and technologies such as search engines,
Web, new media relations, blogging and social media marketing. Interactive PR allows
companies and organizations to disseminate information without relying solely on mainstream
publications and communicate directly with the public, customers and prospects.

The term ‘interactive public relations’ implies two-way communication, between an organization
and its publics. Internet methods have emerged as a quick and convenient way of speaking to the
public, but are better characterized as digital public relation. Although dialogue is encouraged
online, the feedback can be less than desired and/or incapable of reaching the intended audience.

Internet methods (i.e. Digital PR) such as blogs, Twitter, email/text blasts, MySpace and
Facebook take an informal approach to talking at people, anticipating a response, but are unable
to determine if the message is accurately comprehended.

Interactive public relations incorporate all forms of communication. It is not limited to online
press releases and bloggers, but instead utilizes every element of building relationships while
maintaining the significance of the spoken word.

Some elements of interactive PR that also incorporate viral and mobile technologies are:

• Press release content optimization for search engines, to help with SEOefforts
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 • Promotion of press releases through social media sites, as well as participation in
community discussions on these sites
• Automated monitoring of online press coverage and use of brands and trademarks
• Creation of internal corporate, organization or individual blogs

o range in scope from individual diaries to political campaigns, media programs

and corporations
o efficient way of sharing knowledge and maintaining news from an
organization
o encourages dialogue, positive and negative views

• Twitter for up-to-date information that is sent to one or everyone

o used for questions, contacts, informal invites

o allows people to follow each others' activities, keep in touch

• Email/Text Blasts offer current information publicized quickly to a large group of

people

o can be used in emergency situations

o ability to measure replies

• Social Networks such as MySpace and Facebook allow people to communicate on

a professional and/or social level

o complete control over the images and messages, free of charge, encourage
word-of-mouth

• Production and promotion of podcast and webinars

Six Steps to Developing Public Relation

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Step 1: Define and write down your objectives for your publicity or media plan.

How will you design your public relations campaign? Will it be designed to:

• Establish your expertise among your peers, the press, or your potential clients or
customers?
• Build goodwill among your customer, supplier, or your community?
• Create and reinforce your brand and professional corporate image?
• Inform and create good perceptions regarding your company and services?
• Assist you in introducing a new service or product to your market?
• Generate sales or leads?
• Mitigate the impact of negative publicity and/or corporate crisis?

You may be wondering why I am asking you these things at the beginning of a tutorial that is
supposed to show you how to create and your develop publicity plan? The answer is easy. In
order for your publicity and media plan to be successful it's first most important to determine and
define your objective. With a clear objective in mind you have laid the ground work to the
complete the remainder of this tutorial.

Step 2: Define your goals in achieving this objective. It is important that your goals be
specific, measurable, results-oriented and time-bound. These goals must be in-line with your
overall business, marketing, and sales objectives.

 Step 3: Determine who your target audience consists of. Who is it that you want to reach
with this campaign? What do you want your key message to be?

 Step 4: Develop a schedule for your public relation campaigns. Create synergy by coinciding
your public relations plan with other marketing and sales efforts.

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 Step 5: Develop your plan of attack. What communication vehicles will you use to get your
message to the public? Examples may include:

• Press releases
• Articles
• Customer Success Stories
• Letters to the Editor
• Press Conferences, Interview, or Media Tours
• Radio, Television, or Press Interviews
• Seminars or Speaking Engagements
• Event Sponsorships

Select three from the list and beginning researching and developing your approach.

 Step 6: Put measures in place to track the results of your PR Campaign. After each campaign
sit down and review the results. Did you achieve the defined objectives and goals of this
campaign? Should you consider modifying your original plan? If so, how and why?